Brookfield is set to provide 22 cubic yards of free, finished compost that will be available for residents to take home in the first week or two of May.
Village trustees were supportive of the initiative at Monday night’s committee of the whole meeting after Jennifer Dowd, a member of Brookfield’s conservation commission, pitched the pilot program, which will cost the village only $500. The compost will live in a pile north of the recreation shed where Kiwanis Park meets the parking lot behind village hall. Residents will be able to access the compost and take as much as they want as long as supplies last.
Trustee Katie Kaluzny passed her fellow board members bags of finished compost as Dowd, who is also a founding board member of the nonprofit Illinois Food Scrap & Composting Coalition, made her presentation, explaining the benefits of providing residents with compost.
“Finished compost helps soil to retain water, so for all of us with big puddles in front of our houses, having compost that we put on our lawns and on our plants will help reduce flooding. It adds nutrition to the soil for growing plants and trees,” Dowd said.
“When people talk about having a compost pile in the village, there’s a lot of, ‘Oh gross, it’s going to smell bad. What are we doing? Why are we thinking of having a pile of this?’” she added. “I want to hold the pile and show everybody this is a really, really rich soil amendment. You mix it in with dirt, and it provides nutrition to our soil. It is not gross. It does not smell bad.”
Finished compost, which can include organic waste, yard waste and food scraps, is treated in a way that breaks it down fully and kills pathogens, resulting in a stable, earthy-smelling final product, Dowd said.
The plan is for the compost to be delivered in the first week of May so that residents can access it during International Compost Awareness Week from May 3-9. The afternoon of May 9, Brookfield will host a “BYOBucket” event where residents can learn about the benefits of finished compost before bringing it home.
“This has been really well received in [other] communities, and we’ve coordinated this whole International Compost Awareness Week perfectly with Project N.I.C.E.,” Brookfield’s annual beautification event, Dowd said. “Should our residents not take every last grain of compost from the pile, the village can then use it and incorporate it into the work of Project N.I.C.E. two weeks later.”
This year, Project N.I.C.E., which stands for Neighbors Involved in a Clean Environment, will take place May 16 in partnership with the Salt Creek Watershed Network.
Green Soils Management, which will provide the compost, tests it for contaminants and certifies it, Dowd said.
She said the program plays into Brookfield’s sustainability plan by creating healthier gardens and encouraging residents to start composting if they don’t already.
“Food scraps are actually a really valuable resource, and when we throw our food scraps away in the garbage, they get taken to a landfill, and when they decompose, they are creating a part of the climate problem that we have because of the methane that’s released,” Dowd said. “When food scraps go to compost, they don’t create that methane. There’s a very smallamount that gets made, but way less than we’re dealing with in landfills. Just to note, the average American throws out, doesn’t use, wastes a quarter of the food that they purchase.”
